As Far As The Execution Is Concerned

Life Is Denied By Lack Of Attention, Whether It Be To Cleaning Windows Or Trying To Write A Masterpiece.

Do Nothing For Effect. Do It For Truth.

[on Being Asked How It Felt To Be The First Female Conductor Of The Boston Symphony:] I've Been A Woman For A Little More Than Fifty Years, And I've Gotten Over My Original Astonishment.

It Is So Much Easier To Rest Contented With What We Have Already Acquired Than To Change Ever So Slightly Those Routine But Profound Habits Of Thought And Feeling Which Govern Our Life, And By Which We Live So Blissfully. This Mental Inertia Is, Perhaps, Our Greatest Enemy. Insidiously It Leads Us To Assume That We Can Renew Our Lives Without Renewing Our Habits.

The Great Conductor Is Always A Despot By Temperament And Intractable In His Ways. ... The Artist Is Obliged To Keep His Laughter And Tears To Himself. If They Want To Emerge, In Spite Of Himself, Then He Must Hide Them Or Unleash Them In Someone Else.